The Ripest Moments is a simple pleasure to read. While reading this memoir of growing up in the 40s and 50s in Jasper and rural Dubois County, Indiana, I found myself reminded over and over again of my own childhood in northern Indiana, and the cousins, aunts, and uncles we'd often visit in Ohio...

Yes, that's the subtitle of the book I just finished. Wesley the Owl is a must for anyone who has ever been in love with an animal. The story is written by Stacey O'Brien, who was a lab assistant at Cal Tech when she adopted a 4-day-old barn owl after he suffered permanent nerve damage and could...

Why review a 38 year old book? When I spotted this book, I remembered the name Harry Caudill because of his book Night Comes to the Cumberland s . I read that book after reading a chapter about Harry Caudill in a book of essays by Wendell Berry called What Are People For? Now, I've been an admirer...

No, you aren't seeing double. The cover of this biographical travelogue features an out-of-focus motorcyle. I was in grad school in 1974 when "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" was published. I never read it or its British precursor, "Zen in the Art of Archery" -- I wasn't...

David Smith, professor emeritus of telecommunications at Ball State University, wrote this coffee-table tome about Hoosiers who found fame in Hollywood. Here are some you may or may not know about: Alice Terry (born on a farm near Vincennes, she was a silent film star) Clifton Webb (born in Indianapolis...

Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when gasoline prices rose from under eighty cents to the staggering price of $1.40 a gallon, the United States government implemented measures to reduce oil imports and improve energy efficiency. Flash forward twenty-plus years. Larger vehicles are again the norm...

Two brand new collections of Obama photos were released to coincide with the election. "The Rise of Barack Obama" is a memorable collection of black and white photos taken by an Award winning photographer who covered Obama for the "Chicago Tribune." Souza's photos start with Obama's...

Having published over 50 novels -- with sales worldwide of more than 140 million copies, James Patterson has just released his second non-fiction title, "Against Medical Advice: One Family's Struggle with an Agonizing Medical Condidtion." His first non-fiction work, "The Day America...

Tori Spelling is the daughter of Aaron Spelling - the famous, super-rich producer of classic cheeseball TV hits like Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Dynasty, and Melrose Place, to name a few. In 2006, Spelling died, and his daughter Tori learned of her father's death via text...

A world-renowned fashion designer starts out to make a "green" line of denim wear, using organic cotton, paying living wages to the growers, cutters, and seamstresses who all have a hand in bringing the product to market. Can it be done? To answer that question author Rachel Louise Snyder travels...